Press package VIVOKA – December 2015
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Four ingenious students,
A few innovative ideas,
A revolution for home automation!
“ The Vivoka adventure started a little less that a year ago, in the
French EPITECH engineering school. We were 4 students in
masters degree program. With our respective experiences in the
field of onboard electronics, our various foreign travels and our
common interest in home automation, we decided to combine our
forces and create a business with one simple idea in monde: make
home automation simple and easy.
William Simonin,
CEO of Vivoka
Nowadays, many major corporations and research centers are focusing on home automation.
But the solutions they have come up with remain costly and user-unfriendly. We managed to
solve technical problems that remained in existing solutions and reached our goal: offer a
simple, affordable, easy to set-up and use home automation solution, that would make anyone’s
house smarter, that's to exclusive features such as voice recognition and 3D cartography. This
solution is called Lola.
On December 1st 2015, Vivoka is tackling the world market and unveiling its technology via a
crowd funding campaign. We are looking to receive the financial support to pursue our
business and building a solid community around our project.”
Press package VIVOKA – December 2015
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INDEX
1. COMPANY PRESENTATION ___________________________ 4
Founding team
The support of the Synergie Lorraine incubator
The numerous partners
2. THE LOLA SOLUTION ________________________________ 6
A simple answer to your daily needs
Innovative and intuitive features
A well-scheduled market launch
Numerous futures perspectives
3. KEY DATES ________________________________________ 11
Timeline
Kickstarter crowd funding campaign
4. CONTACTS _________________________________________ 13
Press package VIVOKA – December 2015
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1. COMPANY PRESENTATION
Vivoka was created in 2015 by 4 students finishing their engineering studies at Epitech –
Graduate School of digital innovation in France. These young entrepreneurs decided to join
their forces to create an innovative project with one ambition: revolution the world of home
automation.
THE FOUNDING TEAM
CEO
With his double diploma in « Computing and Entrepreneurship »
from the prestigious university of Kent (United Kingdom), William
has all the necessary skills to build and steer a project such as
Vivoka.
Technical Director
With his post-graduate degree, his numerous internships in
companies around the world and his year spent in the US, Geoffrey
has developed a technical versatility and management skills that
enable his to drive a team and produce quality products.
Systems Engineer
With his double diploma as Security major at the University of Kent
and in electrical engineering, Vincent both masters both the
theoretical and practical aspects of the subject.
Mobile manager
Thanks to his studies, his professional experience and knowledge in
artificial intelligence acquired in France and in the UK, Pierre-Alain is a
passionate developer. Having worked as an assistant at his graduate
school Epitech also developed his management skills to drive new
team-members.
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THE SUPPORT OF THE SYNERGIE LORRAINE INCUBATOR
Synergie is a start-up accelerator created in 1985, as a subsidiary of the
Lorraine Chamber of Commerce and Industry, with an aim to support
innovative projects with high potential. Alongside an acceleration
program based on a network of experts, Synergie owns business
incubators all across the region (6500 square meters of office space)
that can be allocated to supported companies. Synergie also manages
and hosts local initiative platforms (hono loans at a 0% rate from the
Initiative France network) that enable start-up to reinforce their equity. Synergie Lorraine is a
member European Business Network EBN and has therefor been labeled “Business Innovation
Center”.
3 questions to Michel Onfray,
Chief of the innovation and financing department of Synergie Lorraine
Why has Synergie Lorraine decided to support Vivoka?
At Synergie, our role is to confirm matching People/product/Market. Vivoka addresses the
market of home automation driven by major companies, whom, after having stood still for a
number of years, is starting to get invested by young businesses. In a wall, the bigger the main
rocks, the more room there is for smaller ones. Generally the people are a weak link in the
projects we see. But for Vivoka, the team brings together very interesting and complementary
profiles with exceptional inherent qualities.
What specific help are your providing?
We know that any project with added value and a potential of creating long-term jobs on the
territory will – at one point in time during its development – be faced with equity reinforcement
needs and address investors. During the earliest phase of the project, we bring this investor
vision, helping us select high potential projects, calibrate the teams and assess the economic
models. In this perspective, we have the support of network growth businesses (Lorraine
Inside), a network of investors specialized in the numeric economy (YEAST), and a fundraising
structure (CCIO2BILAN).
We are also backed by a pool of experts (incubators, university
research centers and experts in digital marketing) to help us assess every step of the project.
Moreover, we provide assistance on the specificities of fundraising for start-ups.
What are the next steps that Vivoka will have to tackle?
Vivoka has already succeeded in raising 150 K€ in equity, with no dilution. The next step is to
get the support of the French Public Investment Bank, and succeed in their Kickstarter crowd
funding campaign. In their mind, the success of this operation is a « go / no go ». In the next few
months they will also have to recruit 12 team-members successfully. And before summer 2016,
another fundraising campaign will enable the company to reach a new dimension.
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NUMEROUS PARTNERS SUPPORT VIVOKA
Institutional Partners _________________________________________________________
Technical
and
consulting
partners
______________________________________________
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2. THE SOLUTION LOLA
A SIMPLE ANSWER TO YOU EVERYDAY NEEDS
Lola by Vivoka is a home automation solution with artificial intelligence features that enables
you to control every connected device in your home, making your house both autonomous and
intelligent. Monitored in a very simple and intuitive way, this solution can steer all your home
automation objects, as well as any other connected device you carry. Lola materializes as a box
plugged into your home Internet network and is controlled very simply via a smartphone of tablet
application.
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INNOVATIVE AND INTUITIVE FEATURES
Lola brings simple and innovative answers to those wishing to set up a home automation
system in their home. You can program and control all your connected devices from a unique
application for smartphone or tablet, with intuitive features.
VOICE RECOGNITION
With Lola, you can interact with your
connected objects only by saying a few
words. Your orders will be converted
into commands and executed. 100%
simple and secure
3D CARTOGRAPHY
With Lola, control any connected object in
your house with just a click on its 3D map
representation.
AUTOMATED SCENARIOS
Lola’s artificial intelligence enables you
to set up a series pre-planned actions.
Lower your blinds when the sun it out or
launch
your
heater
when
the
temperature drops.
UNIVERSAL COMPATIBILITY
Lola is compatible with the majority of protocols
present on the market. You can control any of
your connected objects.
Press package VIVOKA – December 2015
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A WELL-SCHEDULED MARKET LAUNCH
End of 2015, the prototype of the Lola box, with all its controlling features was born. The first
few months of 2016 will be aimed at producing the box at an industrial level, with this production
remaining in France. Their objective is to launch Lola internationally by the last trimester of
2016. A pre-commercialization program will be launched December 1st 2015, via the crowd
funding campaign on the Kickstarter platform.
Lola will be sold online on the official website www.vivoka.com at the following price:
Why target the international market in the early phase?
« We quickly realized that our company could not address only the French market, or we would
nip it in the bud. If we don’t quickly assert our presence on the lead markets for home
automation (the US and the UK), we are at risk that local competitors with a much stronger
sales force on these markets will see our technological innovations, manage to copy them and
address the market before we can even start. The Vivoka is doomed to be international!”
William, CEO and co-founder of Vivoka.
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NUMEROUS FUTURE PERSPECTIVES
Vivoka founders have already thought out the next development stages of their project. More
than just home automation, Vivoka solutions will enable users to pilot any other connected
device used in the day-to-day life. Compatible with the majority of existing protocols, Lola will
become the universal remote control for all connected devices.
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3. KEY DATES
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KICKSTARTER CROWDFUNDING CAMPAIGN
December 1st 2015, Vivoka launches the Lola project on
the Kickstarter platform goes out to meet its audience in
France and internationally.
With a fixed objective at 100 000 $, Vivoka is positioned
like an ambitious project on this sector, hoping to
seduce a maximum of backers during the 45 day period
of the campaign. On of their underlying objective is to
create a community of Lola fans, arouse the interest of
journalists and influent bloggers in the field of home
automation and connected devices and get people
talking about their innovation.
Link to the Kickstarter page (active until January 15, 2016):
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/813454747/lola-controlling-your-house-has-never-been-soeasy
Why did you decide to launch your project with a Kickstarter campaign?
« Having finalized our research and development phase with a considerable degree of secrecy,
it’s time for use to go public and officially and mark our territory with conviction. Our « coming
out » on Kickstarter answers a multi-teer strategy: firstly, the financial objective of raising equity.
But most important, it is a great opportunity focus to test our solution on the target markets,
creating a community of followers that will help us finalize our project and pre-commercialize our
solution. We have 45 days to prove our product is worth it, 45 days during which our partners
and ourselves will do all we can to get our project out there and convince Kickstarter backers!
William, CEO and co-founder of Vivoka.
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4. CONTACTS
+33 (0)6 25 21 93 75
contact@vivoka.com
11 rempart Saint Thiébault
57000 Metz – France
ViVoka
vivoka_official
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